Veteran’s Park, Redondo Beach, CA

Dove With Instructor John and his Basic Open Water class.

In With: 3100 psi
Out With: 1700 psi
Max depth: 70 feet
Waves: 1-4 feet (Red Tide)
Visibility: 5 feet at best – It sucked because of Red Tide.
Water Temperature: 60 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 24 minutes

It has been raining on and off for a solid month.

The whole Southern California has been drenched.

Landslides, floods, people dieing have all been in the news.

I have been taking a SCUBA Rescue Course through Instructor John; two weeks ago the ocean work was canceled due to the poor conditions.

The last leg of the Rescue Course is scheduled today at 10:30 AM; I showed up at 7:30 to watch John teach his class.

Jake from the Rescue Course was there, too.

John was teaching four students from “Pelican,” the flashlight company.

I made it out first in the 2-3 foot red tide surf; two students followed.

The third student turned back.

John rescued the fourth student who was hyperventilating.

John took him back through the surf and pulled him to shore with the help of the other student.

John made it back out with the rest of us.

We submerged to 20 feet and followed John down the shelf to 70 feet.

It was extremely dark; a student turned his flashlight on – a flashlight that I later recovered for him when he dropped it.

Then we headed back.

I was the first one on shore.

We helped one of the students back up.